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Originally Posted by SAMIAM
I read a story this month....National Geographic or Smithsonian,not sure which one,that indicated that 100's of thousands of birds were being killed by the windmills out west.Mostly golden eagles,hawks and owls.For some reason they are mostly raptors.I'm puzzled why people who profess to care about the enviroment would want a windmill anywhere near them.
As I recall,Exxon got fined millons of $$ for accidentally killing 80 migrating birds.The have stopped road and bridge projects for a nesting eagle,osprey or owl.There is a federal law that calls for huge fines for causing the death...or even harrassing or interferring with migrating birds.
Hey,I'm with ya' on solar,wave energy, ethanol,nuclear....you name it,but if you want windmills ,say goodbye to your little birdies.
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From what I understand, the vast majority of windmill bird deaths in the West happen at one early and rather poorly planned windfarm in Atamont (sp?) near San Francisco. Due to poor knowledge of the time of bird migration routes, this particular facility is in a uniquely poor place as well as having a large number of pretty small windmills turning so fast the birds can't avoid the blades.
Ordinary skyscrapers are estimated to kill many times more birds than all of the more modern windfarms presently operating in the US.